Ran's New Life (Continued)
by Detectivewriters
Summary: "My name is Mouri Ran, I'm a normal high school student, or at least I was. Somehow I got myself involved with some people in black and shrunk. Magic? No clue. But what I'm sure of is that I have to stop them." - the adopted story of Ran's New Life
1. Shopping for Conan

_Hello! As mentioned in the summary, I have adopted this story from conan44ed. I haven't taken it over or anything. I'm just posting it and helping write it. So if you want the beginning of the story, I suggest you read his conan44ed's "Ran's New Life". _

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Chapter 2: Shopping for Conan:

Amaya rubbed her half-closed eyes as she peeked out of her room. As they adjusted to the bright sunlight shining through the windows of Detective Mouri's office, she noticed that Conan was on her father's desk. As she moved closer, she noticed that he was going through Detective Mouri's files on yet-to-be-solved mysteries.

"Conan-kun, what are you doing?" Amaya asked.

"Oh, Amaya, you're up!" Conan almost looked like he was caught red-handed, but quickly recovered and added, "I'm, uh, just trying to figure these things out."

"Conan! You can't do that! Ojisan will get mad if he sees you going through his stuff!" Then she added, "And Obasan is gonna be coming soon, so you need to clean up your room!"

"Yeah, yeah," Conan said as he hopped down from the chair and headed toward his room, muttering to himself, "It's your room now too, you know."

While Conan was cleaning up, Amaya started working on making breakfast. Conan, after finishing up his room, was drawn out when he smelled what Amaya was making.

"I didn't know you could cook," he said.

However, before Amaya could respond, Eri burst into the kitchen and, when she saw Amaya cooking, completely ignored Conan and grabbed the girl up into a bear hug. "Oh, I'm so glad you're alright!" the lawyer exclaimed. "I wasn't sure that it was true, but now that I see that it was . . ." her voice trailed off as she squeezed Amaya once again, making her cough slightly at the lack of air.

"You can . . . let me go now," Amaya managed to say.

Conan, feeling a bit awkward at interrupting their apparent reunion, said, "Huh? You know each other?"

"Y-yeah," Eri replied. She quickly thought of a makeshift story and said, "It's just that Amaya here hasn't visited us in so long, I was starting to worry."

"Oh," Conan said. Then he realized something. "Wait a minute, why are you here anyway? I thought you and Ojisan were living separate." Amaya had told Conan that Eri would be living here now last night, but he was trying to get some sleep and so wasn't paying very close attention at the time.

"Obasan had a change of heart," Amaya said quickly, going along with their idea from yesterday.

"Really?" Conan said skeptically. Amaya nodded her head.

A loud yawn interrupted the conversation and everyone looked up to see Detective Mouri Kogoro standing in the doorway. "Oh, hey Eri," he said before going immediately toward Amaya to see what she was cooking.

"Is that anyway to greet your wife after not seeing her for so long?" Eri asked.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied, getting out dishes for the four people for breakfast.

"Hmph, I'll never get that man," Eri muttered to herself.

As the family ate breakfast, Eri, Kogoro and Amaya described their made-up story on what brought Amaya here in the first place. But Conan was a little more interesting on why Ran had left without saying anything in the first place. Wouldn't she at least call and tell Shinichi that she was going to study abroad? He shook his head; it wasn't the time to worry about that now. Mouri was just finishing up the story by saying, "And that's where I called you to ask for those clothes."

"I see," Conan replied.

After breakfast, while Eri doted on Amaya, Conan started getting ready for school. After a few minutes, he warned Amaya that she had better start getting ready as well so that she wouldn't be late for school. She pulled herself away from Eri and got ready.

Amaya and Conan walked out of the door of the Mouri Detective Agency, both hoping that the parents would be able to get along okay without them. The two shrunken teens continued their way to Teitan Elementary School without saying much, until Conan ran ahead of Amaya. When they arrived, Conan told the teacher about the girl and went to his seat, where the Detective Boys were waiting.

"Ne, Conan-kun," Ayumi asked, "what were you talking to Kobayashi-sensei about?"

"There's a new girl that's gonna be living at my house now. Apparently, she's Ran-nee-chan's cousin."

"Really? Cool!" Ayumi replied.

Then Amaya came in saying, "Geez, Conan-kun, leaving me behind like that!" Then she thought to herself, At least I knew where I was going.

Then Kobayashi-sensei gestured Amaya over and addressed the entire class, saying, "Good morning, everyone! This is Mouri Amaya. She's going to be in your class from now on."

"C-cute," Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta said.

"Why don't you take a seat over there, next to Conan-kun?" the teacher said. Ayumi nodded and went over. Then Kobayashi-sensei started the lesson.

Sometime during the lesson, Amaya thought to herself, _This is so easy, I've already learned it all_. Bored, she looked around to see how the others were doing. Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko were all paying attention, while Conan and Haibara seemed zoned out.

After school let out, Ayumi immediately went over to the new girl and asked, "Amaya-chan, do you want to join the Detective Boys?"

"Eh?" she asked.

"We're the Detective Boys," Genta explained, gesturing to the other four, "We solve cases around the school when people come to us for help."

"And we have gadgets too!" Mitsuhiko added, showing Amaya his detective badge and flashlight watch.

"So, do you want to join?" Ayumi asked.

Amaya looked at the hopefully faces of the three kid and replied, "I guess." Hopefully there wouldn't be any murders though. She shivered a bit at the thought of the ones she had seen.

"Yay!" the three children exclaimed.

"Looks like we have another member," Haibara said to Conan.

"Guess so," Conan replied. The Detective Boys quickly checked to see if anyone had asked for them to solve a case - nobody had - and then they went their separate ways.

When Conan and Amaya got home, they heard yelling coming from inside. They both sighed and "sweat-dropped". They climbed up the stairs and opened the door where they heard the yelling coming from. Amaya sighed when she saw that the two were arguing over how often Mouri watches Okino Yoko. The two noticed that the "kids" had come home and stopped arguing immediately.

"I'm home," Amaya said.

"Welcome back," Eri replied, turning her attention away from her husband.

"I wish you guys would stop arguing."

"We've been trying, Amaya. It's just not that easy."

Amaya sighed and headed to her room to work on her homework, which she knew would go by in a flash. Conan watched the interesting exchange between the two. He guessed that Amaya had seen the two argue a lot. Then he followed Amaya to their room and starting working on his homework as well.

The two soon finished their homework very quickly and went on to do their own things. Amaya went to talk to her parents about her "first day of school" at Teitan Elementary while Conan stayed in his room to read his Sherlock Holmes again.

When Amaya came back into her room, she looked around and saw Conan on the bed reading. He looked rather bored, as if he had already read the book several times over.

"Ne, Conan," she asked, "Why are you reading all the time?"

"I don't know," he replied in a bored voice that seemed somehow different from his normal voice, "there's not really much to do besides watching TV and reading, and I don't want to watch TV all the time."

"Oh," Amaya replied. She looked around at the room. Then she walked out and searched the agency a bit. Now that she thought about it, there wasn't really anything here for the 7-year-old to play with. No wonder he jumped at any chance there was a case. Those cases provided excitement for him. And if he's always reading detective books and watching detective movies and hanging out around crime scenes when her dad was solving them, then it's no wonder that he's always so smart and helps her dad with cases every once in awhile. No, not every once in awhile. Almost every time by noticing strange things that often lead to the solving of the case.

Eri noticed Ran's looking around the detective agency and asked her, "Ran, what's wrong?"

"Shh," Amaya replied. "Mom, don't call me that when there's a chance of someone else hearing you." She glanced toward her room, where Conan was reading.

"Okay then, Amaya," Eri amended, "why are you looking around like that?"

"Mom," Amaya ventured, "I think we need to get Conan-kun some toys. I've searched this place through and haven't found one regular toy that he could play with. He's had to resort to watching TV and re-reading his books."

"Really?" Eri asked, surprised. Then she looked over at where Kogorou was listening to horse racing with a very serious look on his face. "Well, it looks like THAT PERSON hasn't been paying much attention to the boy's needs."

"So then, can we get him something next time we go out?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't we? But let's make it a surprise for him."

Amaya smiled, "Thanks, Mom!"

Then next day, Eri left with Amaya to go shopping. Of course, they only told Conan that they would be getting food for dinner, when actually they'd make a couple other stops.

After getting the food, Eri took Amaya to a clothes shop close by. "Now that you've become smaller, we'll have to get you new clothes that actually fit. You've been wearing the clothes from your childhood for the past few days, and we don't want anybody to think you look to much like Mouri Ran that way."

"Okay!" Ran replied, wishing that perhaps Sonoko could come along, as they walked into the store. Eri immediately headed toward the "girls'" section and started picking out clothes for Amaya.

"How about this?" she asked, holding up a few dresses. One was frilly and pink with purple polka dots. Another had the characters of a little kids' show on it. The third was lavender with bright pink flowers scattered around it.

"Mom!" Amaya protested, "You know I'd rather not have these! It's too childish! These are for little kids!"

"Exactly!" Eri responded, "And now you're a little kid again, so it'd make more sense if you were to wear things like this!"

"Moooom . . ." Amaya sighed. However, she resigned and let her mother buy the clothes, along with many, many others like the three dresses. Amaya shook her head, sighing again, while they were checking out.

Afterwards, they went across the street to buy the toys for Conan. As they were crossing the street, a thought suddenly struck Amaya. "But Mom," she said, "What about when Conan sees us coming back with a whole bunch of bags and things?"

"What about it?" Eri replied.

"Well, wouldn't he question it?" Amaya explained. "After all, we just suddenly got a whole bunch of clothes. Wouldn't he think it strange?"

"Hm, you're right," Eri replied, looking up as she thought about it. "We could always sneak them in."

"Um, I don't think that'll work . . ."

"Well then, we could just say that we forgot to pick up your luggage. But in that case, we'd also need to get a suitcase to put them in . . ."

The mother and daughter walked into the toy store and searched around for things that a 7-year-old boy might like. Amaya went to look over at the Kamen Yaiba toys. As she picked a few out, she thought about the conversation she and Conan had had when she first came back as a child. How he was being contradictory about whether he liked the show or not. Confused, she decided to get the toys anyway, just in case. She looked around for some other things that he might like. She spotted a soccer ball in an isle nearby. Now that she thought about it, that boy really loved soccer, didn't he? And he didn't have a ball of his own either. She added the soccer ball to the Yaiba toys in the cart.

After Amaya and Eri had gotten many more toys that they thought Conan would like, they checked out and headed home. When they got back, Conan asked, as Amaya expected, "Whoa, you guys got a lot of things. Why so much?" He noticed that at least half of the bags were filled with clothes. "There's a lot of clothes, too," he added.

"Yeah, that's because we forgot to bring Amaya's luggage in," Eri quickly replied. Then she added, "Amaya, can you take these to the kitchen?" She handed her the bag of food.

"Okay!" Amaya replied.

"What's everything else, then?" Conan asked.

"That's for you!" Amaya replied, quickly coming back from the kitchen to see Conan's expression when he saw all the toys they had gotten for him. She emptied out the bags to show him.

"Wow!" Conan replied, seemingly very excited. "That's a lot! Thank you very much, Eri-san!"

"I'm glad you like them!" Eri replied. However, when she left, Conan's tone changed completely.

"Why'd she get me so much stuff?" he muttered, forgetting that Amaya was still there. "I don't even like these kinds of things. They're stupid, childish things for kids," he added, subconsciously dribbling the soccer ball as he walked back into his room to search it once again to see if there was some book he hadn't read yet.

"Eh?" Amaya asked herself when Conan had left. _What was that about?_ she thought, _It seems like he didn't care about anything besides his soccer ball. Was he lying again when he showed Mom that reaction?_ Hm, maybe she should tell her mom about that, and how he didn't really care about the toys they had gotten for him . . .

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_Hope you liked it!_


	2. Suspicious Conan and Sonoko's Test

_Hello again! Here's the next chapter of Ran's New Life! Hope you like it! ;) _

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Chapter 3: Suspicious Conan and Sonoko's Test:

Feeling like she somehow disappointed Conan, Amaya picked up the toys that he had left on the floor and put them into their room. She glanced sidelong at the detective otaku on the bed who was reading a book again and shook her head. Either his personality changed way too much, or he was hiding something from anyone who wasn't a kid. Conan had never shown Ran this side of himself, but he seemed to be doing it a lot in front of Amaya.

She dropped the toys in the room and said to Conan, "Well, Mom got them for you so if you don't want to play with them, you could at least put them away."

Conan glanced up from his book and sighed. "Fine," he said, climbing off the bed and trying to find places for the toys.

As the sky outside became darker, Amaya climbed onto the bed and pretended to go to sleep. Conan only had two things left, a Kamen Yaiba and one of the villains action figures, when Eri opened the door to check on them. His face immediately changed into that of a little kid overjoyed at the new toys he was bought.

"Yeah, Yaiba! Get him!" Conan said while smashing the two together. Maybe he was acting a little too young for his apparent age, he thought. But it didn't matter, as Eri closed the door after smiling once.

Amaya's face screwed up in confusion. What was that all about? Since she was turned away from Conan, she couldn't see him, but she could hear him, and she could see her mother's reaction. But the moment Eri closed the door, Conan stopped acting like that and proceeded to finish putting away the two action figures. Then he got ready for bed and climbed into the futon on the floor, reading once again.

Very confusing behavior. It was as if he wanted others to think he had a different personality than he actually had. But why on earth would he act like that? Why would he have to hide? This thinking made Amaya's head spin and she started drifting off to sleep for real this time.

The next morning, Amaya consulted her mother about this.

"Eh?!" Eri exclaimed. "He doesn't like them?"

"You should've seen him, Mom!" Amaya said. "As soon as you left, he dropped the toys and went back to our room. Then later, when you went to check in on us, he was really just putting the toys away like I asked him to. But he suddenly started playing with them and acting very little-kid-ish until you closed the door. Then he finished cleaning up and went to bed!"

"What?" Eri asked, confused. "But why would he do such a thing?"

"I don't know, Mom, that's why I'm asking you. It's almost as if he's trying to keep something from us."

"Hm, this is very interesting. Well, you should keep an eye on him and see how he changes when no adults or teenagers are around."

Amaya nodded her head in agreement and glanced back toward her room, where Conan was still sleeping.

About a half hour later, Conan came out of his room with hair tousled from his bed. A little later Kogoro came out as well and sat down at his desk reading the newspaper. Eri noticed them, thought she'd do Ran/Amaya a favor and left to make breakfast. Then she called everyone to eat.

When Conan took the first bite, he asked with barely detectable shaking in his voice, "Did you make this, Eri-san?"

"Yup! What do you think?"

"I-it's good," Kogorou replied.

"You didn't even try it yet!" she accused.

"Well, I'm sure it is, but I'm not very hungry right now . . ."

"M-me either," Conan agreed. Amaya stayed silent.

"Well, then, you two can eat it later when you get hungry," Eri replied. _Can't I just throw it out?_ Conan thought. "What about you, Amaya?" she added.

"I'll stay," Amaya replied. It was the least she could do for bringing her mother back to live with her dad.

After surviving Eri's cooking, Amaya left to check on Conan. She found him just outside the front door juggling the soccer ball they got him in deep thought. _Well, at least he's playing with something we got him,_ Amaya thought. For a few seconds, she felt as if she had traveled back in time and that it was Shinichi juggling the ball in front of her. She shook her head to get that image out of her head. Conan may look like Shinichi, but the two still had different personalities. She had also seen the two detective geeks together before.

Amaya was about to ask Conan why he was out here when she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. "Sonoko!" she exclaimed out of habit. "What are you doing here?"

"Huh?" Conan asked, turning around to see Amaya and Sonoko. Could the two know each other?

"Eh? Do I know you?" Sonoko asked the girl. Guess not. Then where could Amaya know her from?

"Oh," Amaya said. _Shoot, I forgot that I have to pretend not to know anybody_, she thought. Then she added, "N-no, but Ran has told me about you and shown me pictures of you before."

_Ah, that explains it,_ Conan thought.

"Okay . . ." Sonoko said, "Who are you?"

"I'm Mouri Amaya, Ran-neechan's cousin," Amaya replied.

"Hm, you do look like her," Sonoko replied.

_How did I not notice that before?_

"And speaking of her, where is Ran? She was supposed to meet me at the cafe."

_Shoot!_ Amaya thought. _I forgot about that!_ "Dad said that Ran-neechan had left to go study abroad."

"What? And not tell me? Who does she think she is?"

_Sorry, Sonoko,_ Ayama mentally apologized.

"Hey, Sonoko-neechan" Amaya said, "Then can I go instead of her?"

"Eh?"

"Ran-neechan told me a lot about you so I wanted to talk to you," Amaya put on an innocent face.

"S-sure," Sonoko replied, confused.

"Then let's go now!"

"H-huh? Why?"

"Come on!" Amaya ignored, grabbing Sonoko's hand and pulling her along away from Conan, leaving the shrunken detective to his wondering about why she was acting that way.

Still confused about the little girl's behavior, Sonoko lead her to the new cafe. When they went inside, Sonoko got a table and waited for the waitress to take their order. When she did, Amaya intentionally got something that Ran would like a lot.

After ordering, Sonoko thought about how the little girl not only looked like Ran, but also liked the same things that Ran did. She looked over at Amaya now. _Whoa, so serious,_ she thought when she saw her.

"Hey, Sonoko . . ." Amaya started. Sonoko looked up. Little children that just met someone don't start out on first-name-basis, where they even leave off the honorific. Either this girl was insulting her, or she for some reason thought that she could be on first-name-basis.

Amaya noticed this look in Sonoko's expression and hurriedly continued on saying, "I'm not Ran's cousin."

Hm, leaving off the honorific in Ran's name as well. Then Sonoko realized what Amaya had said. "Eh?!" she exclaimed.

"No, I'm not Mouri Amaya either."

Now Sonoko was really confused. "Then, who are you?"

"Mouri Ran."

Sonoko looked at the little girl. Then the statement hit her like a ton of bricks. "WHAT?!" she exclaimed. Every head in the cafe turned to her. _Oops_, she thought. Then she said to the girl, "Q-quit joking around. That's not possible."

"But it's true!"

"Prove it."

"Hm . . ." she thought. "You always say that Shinichi is my husband."

"Ran could've told you that."

"W-well, what about karate? I've stopped many criminals with my karate."

"You have to show it to me first. I won't believe just because you say you can do it."

Amaya sighed, "Okay. But I need to find something to demonstrate it on . . ."

"I'll buy a board or something after we eat," Sonoko replied as the waitress brought their food.

_Well, that's not really karate, but okay,_ Amaya thought to herself.

After they ate, Sonoko was true to her word and started walking over to a nearby store with Amaya to get the board. Amaya, knowing the way, walked ahead of Sonoko when her friend had slowed down a bit to do something on her phone.

Suddenly, she heard Sonoko cry out. Amaya spun around to see a teenaged guy with brown hair and blue eyes holding his arm across Sonoko's throat, with her friend trying to pull his arm away from her so she could breathe. But her main focus was on Sonoko, and so she missed seeing the shocked expression of the teen, and the fact that he looked somehow familiar.

Amaya instinctively ran forward and jumped, kicking the person who was trapping Sonoko in the stomach.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, falling backwards onto the sidewalk.

"Are you okay, Sonoko?" Amaya asked, turning toward Sonoko.

But Sonoko was just smiling and said, "Okay, Ran, now you've got to tell me how you became like this."

"Eh?" Amaya asked.

"That was my test," Sonoko explained. "I pretended to be attacked to see if you would help me. After all, no little girl who just met me would do such a thing as that."

"Oh, good! You believe me! But . . ." Amaya looked around, "I'll tell you how later."

Amaya and Sonoko left the teenager on the sidewalk and walked back to the Mouri Detective Agency.

"Owwww," the teenager groaned, standing up. _That kid can really kick hard,_ he thought to himself. He heard someone running up to him and looked in that direction. A girl with long brown hair came up to him.

"Kaito, are you okay?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Y-yeah, I think so, Aoko," he replied. "A random girl suddenly grabbed my arm and made it so that it looked like I was choking her. Then the little kid that was with her jumped up and kicked my stomach. Apparently it was something to make sure the little girl was telling the truth."

"Mou," Aoko replied.

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_You probably won't get the little exchange between Kaito and Aoko unless you've watched/read Magic Kaito, but I still had to put Kaito in there somehow. _

_For those who don't know, I'll explain "first-name basis" and "honorifics". The honorifics are things like "-kun" and "-san". Like saying "Conan-kun" or "Ran-neechan". For first-name basis, in Japan, people who just met usually call each other by their last names. You would only use their first name if you knew them well or sometimes if you're trying to insult them._


	3. Threatening Note

_Okay, technically this was supposed to be a part of the last chapter, but I had wanted to keep the size of the chapters even. Because of that, this is a short chapter. However, I'm also gonna be writing the next chapter soon. _

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Chapter 4: Threatening Note:

Conan looked up. Sonoko and Amaya were back. But somehow they seemed different. Like they knew each other for years. What could've happened at the cafe? This Amaya girl was strange. He might have to keep an eye on her.

The weekend passed without much change. Conan did act weird sometimes, but nothing different from before. Amaya was still confused. But she managed to keep it from Conan. If there was anything different about him at all, it seemed as if he was being a little too curious about her. Every once in a while he would look up from whatever he was doing to look at Amaya, and dropped his head down again when she met his eyes.

School started up again as Monday came. The classes were still easy and boring, and Conan quickly fell asleep. Amaya, at least, could do a better job. She easily covered up her boredom and pretended to stay attentive. However, at one point she couldn't help but look around herself and she saw Conan asleep on his deck.

"Geez," she whispered to herself as she saw him. "And it was just getting to a more difficult part, at least for a first grader." Nobody else was sleeping though. Maybe he could get help from his friends.

However, after checking to see if anyone had any cases for them (nobody had), Conan and Amaya went straight home. Well, she could always help him with the problems. These were easy for her, they wouldn't be for Conan.

At least, that's what she thought. Of course, she didn't know Conan was actually Shinichi, so she was very surprised when she saw him finish the "difficult" problems within a few seconds. But just to make sure, she checked all his answers. They were all correct.

_Who is he?!_ Amaya thought to herself. A normal first-grader couldn't have done all that that quickly and correctly without even listening to the teacher tell him how to do them. Did he have a secret tutor or something? This was just all too confusing.

Amaya decided to go outside to clear her mind. Like how Shinichi juggles soccer balls. Now that she thought about it, she often saw Conan juggling balls as well. Heh, the two were related after all. It would make sense for them to be a bit similar.

"Ah, pretty!" Amaya explained when she saw the sunset. And it indeed was, with the splash of colors, and just the right amount of clouds in just the right places to enhance the effect. She watched as the sun sunk down below the horizon.

She was just about to go inside when she remembered, they didn't have much to eat for breakfast tomorrow. She might as well go buy them now, since she was already outside. She had been walking for a few minutes when she realized, she had forgotten to bring money with her.

"Taku," she said, facepalming herself. As she turned to go back home, she heard rapid footsteps behind her. She turned just in time to see a figure with a brown leather coat and a matching hat covering their face grab her and put a strange-smelling cloth around her mouth and nose. Then everything went black. Again.

Conan woke up the next morning to find the spot next to him in the room. _Where's Amaya?_ He thought. Actually, she hadn't come back when she went outside last night, did she? Immediately Conan started to worry. He got out of bed and even forgot to put his fake glasses on when he came out of his room and looked around. Mouri was staring at a piece of paper on his desk with a very angry look on his face.

_Ah le?_ Conan thought. _What's with him?_

Conan walked over to the "detective", hoping against hope that it wasn't what he thought it was. Unfortunately, it was.

"EHHH?!" Eri exclaimed when she found out the news. "Ran's been kidnapped?!"

Did Conan just hear what he thought he heard . . . ?

"How did this happen?! How could Amaya let this happen to her?!" Eri continued, amending the mistake in saying Ran's actual name instead of the fake name they had come up with.

Guess not.

Mouri, with an angry face and frustration in his voice, but still acting calm, responded, "I don't know. But we have to get her back somehow!"

"Hey, can I see that?" Conan interrupted, speaking quickly. He didn't wait for a reply and grabbed the paper Kogorou had been looking at. "1 million yen," he muttered to himself when he saw the kidnapper's demands, "along with . . . a resignation at being a detective?" Conan was confused. The yen, he understood, but why did the kidnapper want Detective Mouri Kogorou to resign his position as a detective? "But why?" he voiced his thoughts.

"I have no idea," Mouri replied. "Tch, why is this person doing this?!"

"Collect the money by next week and your daughter will be set free," Conan read aloud. The others were too distracted to realize that he was reading all the kanji correctly. "I'll be waiting at the local park, at the lamp next to the bench on the East side. I'll see you there with the money and letter of resignation. Unless you want your daughter to die."

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_Yeah, I know it's a cliffhanger, but like I said, I'll probably be writing the next chapter soon ;) Ja ne! _


	4. Hello There, I'm Ran

_Konbanwa! Sorry for the late update, but when you have schoolwork and such combined with writing three different fanfics at once . . . it's a bit hard to write enough of any of them to update on time. But here it is! Enjoy! _

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Chapter 5: Hello There, I'm Ran

After reading the paper, Conan immediately took off running down the stairs and outside. He looked around himself, trying to recall which way Amaya had gone when she left. He ran to the left when he remembered. But there was no telling when she had been kidnapped, so after he ran for a minute or so, he started asking those around him whether they had seen Amaya or not.

Even after Conan described the girl to them, not many people said they had seen her. And the ones that had, had only seen her during the day. Conan walked up to yet another person, a middle aged man with glasses and brown eyes, and asked, "Ne, have you seen Amaya?" He described her to him.

"Oh, that little girl?" he asked. "Yeah, I saw her last night. But it was strange, because I was looking out the window and saw her, but then I turned away for a second, turned back, and she was gone."

"Hey, did you see any suspicious person after she disappeared?" Conan asked excitedly. "Like maybe someone running away or something like that?"

"Now that you mention it, I think there was. It was someone with a brown leather coat and a hat covering their face. That person also dropped a white cloth while they were running away."

"What direction did that person go in?!" Conan asked urgently.

"T-that way," the middle-aged man said, surprised at Conan's reaction and pointing behind Conan. "He kept going that way until he was out of sight."

Conan immediately ran in the direction the man had pointed in, calling behind him, "Thank you, Ojisan!"

As Conan ran along, he found the white cloth the man was talking about. He carefully picked it up with a white cloth of his own and wafted it, making sure not to breath in too much of the chemical. He nodded to himself. It was as he thought: chloroform. After confirming his suspicions, Conan went back to running in the direction the man had pointed in.

As Conan ran along, he easily found the track that the kidnapper had left. The first thing he found other than the cloth soaked in chloroform was the kidnapper's hat. It wasn't very far from the cloth but showed that the kidnapper had turned off the straight path. He followed the path until he got near a forest. Then he found the leather jacket that was described. It was lying next to a little stream that he had obviously passed through. There were muddy footprints that showed the kidnapper was now walking. Conan followed the footprints, walking back into town where they were easily seen.

Conan stopped. This was too easy. Way too easy. Anybody could follow this track. It was as if the culprit _wanted_ Conan to follow him. Suspicious, he still followed the trail but now with much greater caution. Eventually, Conan came up to an old, dilapidated, abandoned factory that the tracks had lead to.

He walked up slowly. Even though it might give the kidnapper a better chance at shooting him, if it actually was a trap, any sudden movement would alert him to his presence. He continued on, walking while flattening himself against the side of the building. He got to the entrance and slipped inside. When Conan got inside, he saw rows of assembly lines and scattered car parts. He looked around, wondering where the kidnapper could be.

Suddenly, Conan heard a noise not unlike a small explosion. He dove to the side as a bullet planted itself in the wall he was just standing in front of. _That was a close one,_ he thought, sighing with relief. He glanced up toward where the bullet had come from. It came from a room with a window looking down on the rest of the factory, but nobody was in that room. Maybe they hid, just in case there was return fire. Or maybe they came out because they saw that their shot had failed. He found out it was the latter when, a couple minutes later, everything went black as he felt something hit the back of his head.

However, he wasn't out for long as he slowly opened his eyes a few seconds later. He restrained himself from moving when he noticed that the kidnapper didn't realize he was awake and was dragging him across the floor. Conan listened, hoping to find a clue as to where Amaya was, but all he heard was the kidnapper muttering something about running out of chloroform.

As he was dragged into a room, he saw Amaya, tied up with rope and with a gag around her mouth. Her eyes widened and she started trying to say something, but it was muffled by the gag. Conan, who hadn't been tied up yet, put his finger to his lips in the universal sign of saying "shhh".

"Oh, do you know this boy?" the kidnapper asked Amaya in a deep voice when he heard her muffled cries. Amaya remained silent. He dropped Conan on the floor and walked over to Amaya. Conan could see the fear in her eyes as the man walked closer to her, knife concealed behind his back.

As the kidnapper moved farther away from Conan and closer to Amaya, he could see more of what the man looked like. He was athletic, and seemed to have a lot of experience with knives, judging by the way he held the knife. As long as Conan surprised him, he hoped not to have too much of a problem.

Slowly and silently, Conan moved into a crouch. He turned on his sneakers and stood up. Finally, he pressed the button on his belt and a soccer ball popped out. The kidnapper turned around at the noise, but it was too late. Conan kicked the ball, his strength enhanced by the sneakers, and it bounced off the wall into the side of the kidnapper's head, knocking him out cold. He fell down sideways away from Amaya. Then Conan moved forward and freed Amaya.

Amaya stared wide-eyed at Conan. "That was awesome! How did you do that?!" she asked after the gag had been removed.

"W-well," Conan started to say. It wasn't like he could just tell her about his sneakers, right? He was about to say something else when a silhouette block the light from the door. "Um," Conan said.

Amaya tilted her head, "What is it?" Conan didn't respond, so Amaya followed his gaze behind her. "Oh, that's what," she said with a slight quivering in her voice.

The newcomer glanced around the room, saw the man knocked out on the floor and turned toward the two "kids". "I guess I'll have to deal with you myself," he said, taking out a dagger.

Conan stepped in front of Amaya, ready to pop out another soccer ball. Of course there was an accomplice. Why didn't he think of that possibility before? The accomplice walked slowly forward, brandishing the dagger as if he was enjoying threatening them. Who knows? Maybe he was. Conan thought about avoiding the danger by simply tranquilizing them, but quickly discarded the idea when he remembered Amaya behind him.

On the other hand, Amaya couldn't just let Conan try to protect her from this guy. He was just a kid and could get hurt! However, she had her karate. She could do something about this. She stepped forward and got into a ready stance as the accomplice came slowly closer.

"No, stay back," Conan said to Amaya as he saw her move and tense up.

"It's okay, Conan-kun," Amaya replied, "I can handle this." Conan looked at her skeptically. Then he noticed the stance she was in. Where had he seen that before . . . ? His thoughts were interrupted when the kidnapper's accomplice suddenly ran forward, aiming for Conan.

Immediately, Conan pressed the button on his belt. Nothing happened. _What now?!_ Conan thought. _It jammed?!_ Even if it hadn't jammed, Conan realized as the attacker was nearly on top of him, he wouldn't have had any time to actually kick it.

Conan blinked when the accomplice tripped. He looked further down and saw Amaya with a serious look on her face with her leg sticking out toward the attacker. Ah, so she was the one who had tripped him.

The accomplice got up and looked at Amaya angrily. "You little-" he said. But before he got much farther, he was hit in the side with Conan's soccer ball. He got knocked down, but was up again in a second, not sure which one to attack. Finally deciding that Conan was the greater threat, he moved toward him, only to be stopped again by Amaya's kick to the stomach.

Then Conan realized what was so familiar about Amaya's earlier stance. _That looks like Ran's karate!_ he thought. However, he decided to concentrate on the matter at hand and kicked the soccer ball once again, finally knocking the accomplice out. A few minutes later, Conan and Amaya had the two criminals tied up with rope that they found in a nearby closet. Then Conan called both Detective Mouri and the police.

While they were waiting for them to arrive, Amaya said, "Ne, Conan-kun . . . I have something to tell you."

"Hm? What is it?" Conan asked curiously.

"Well . . ." she hesitated. Should she really tell him? She wanted to, but could he keep her secret? But it wouldn't be fair to Conan if she didn't tell him. Still, she didn't know what to do. Maybe she should wait until she asked her parents.

"What is it?" Conan asked again.

Amaya shook her head, "Iie, nandemonai."* She decided to wait at least a little longer.

"Hm," Conan said to himself. Was she hiding something?

They sat in silence for a few more minutes. Suddenly, Amaya couldn't bear it anymore. She had to say _something_. So she decided to say what she was trying to say before.

Pressured by the silence, she ventured, "Conan-kun."

"Nani?" Conan asked.

Amaya took a deep breath, "Conan-kun, I'm-" She hesitated, then shook her head. Why'd she stop? Conan looked at her curiously. Finally, she resolved to just plunge into it and reintroduced herself. "Hello there, Conan-kun," she said, "I'm Ran."

* * *

*_I've heard Ran say this many times when Conan asks her what's wrong. It means "no, nothing". _

_The reveal! _


	5. Celebration

_Kon'nichiwa, I'm back with another chapter. Now, what will Conan think of Ran's confession and what will he do about it? _

* * *

Chapter 6: Celebration:

Conan stared as he tried to process what Amaya had said. "What?" he asked her, almost asking as if he heard right.

"I'm Ran," she replied, confidence growing in her now that she had gotten it out. "You probably don't believe me, do you?"

"N-no, not really . . ." he replied, confused at what was happening.

Amaya sighed, "I should have known you wouldn't believe me. Alright, listen, I can prove it." Conan gave her full attention. "We once took a bath together, but you kept struggling and didn't let me wash all of you." Conan's face immediately turned red and he looked down. "Is that enough?" Amaya - no, Ran - asked. Conan silently nodded his head.

Besides, it all made sense. Why Amaya looked so much like Ran, why she and Sonoko had come back from the cafe all happy (she must have told Sonoko), why the stance Amaya was in when the kidnapper's accomplice attacked looked so much like Ran's karate stance. All that combined with the fact that Conan knew that it was possible for that to happen - he was a first-hand victim of it, after all - made him wonder how he didn't think of it before.

"Ne, Ran-neechan," Conan said quietly, now fully recovered.

She looked at him curiously. "Nani?" she asked.

"Did there happen to be any men in black around when you got shrunken?"

"Eh, how did you know?"

"Um," Conan replied, thinking fast, "It's just that all the bad guys in movies and on TV are always black. But then there were?"

"Unm," she confirmed. So she must have fallen victim to the men in black, just as he had. But why did he cover up the reason that he thought it was the Black Organization? Why didn't he just tell her that he was really Shinichi? Maybe it was just habit. Maybe he still believed that she would still be in more danger if she knew the truth about them than what she knew now.

Before anything else could happen, the door to the room burst open and Detective Mouri ran in. Once he saw the now-shrunken Ran standing beside Conan, he rushed up and gathered her in a bone-crushing hug.

"D-dad," she gasped, "Y-you can . . . let go . . . now." When he realized that perhaps he was hugging her a little too hard, he immediately released her and asked if she was okay. She nodded her head while regaining her breath.

_That's Detective Mouri for you,_ Conan thought to himself, _He may be horrible at his job and a complete drunk, but when it gets to his daughter, nothing can stop him._ Conan wondered how far ahead he had gotten of the police and Eri-san.

The detective glanced around and seemed to notice Conan for the first time. Awkwardly, he asked, "Are you okay, Conan-kun?"

"Uh huh!" Conan replied in a child-like voice. "Both Ran-neechan and I are fine!"

Detective Mouri looked sharply at him, then at Ran.

"It's okay, dad," she said, answering his unspoken question. "I told him."

When the police and Eri-san came in a little while later, the kidnapper and his accomplice were immediately arrested for . . . well, kidnapping. Then Conan, Amaya and her parents headed home. On the way back, they told Eri-san that Amaya had told Conan her identity (making Conan feel guilty that he hadn't told her in turn). After they got home, all four sat down in Mouri's office and they filled Conan in on what had happened to Ran.

"But you must remember, Conan-kun," Eri-san said sternly, "you must _never_ tell anybody else, got it?"

"Mmhmm," Conan replied, nodding his head to emphasize the point. Of course he knew that. That was why he hadn't told anyone about_ his_ identity (save Professor Agasa of course, but that's different).

A little while later Conan made up a reason to go to Professor Agasa's and left the apartment. Once he got out the door, he ran to the professor's house. When it was in sight, he slowed down a bit to regain his breath. Then he knocked on the door and the inventor opened it.

"Agasa-hakase," Conan said, "We've got a problem."

"What have you gotten yourself into this time?" Haibara asked. The three had gathered into the living room after Conan came in.

"About that . . ." Conan started to stay. Haibara raised her eyebrows in expectation. "Ran's been shrunken," he finished.

"Eh?!" Professor Agasa exclaimed.

"Aa," Conan replied, "Actually she's been for a few days, using the alibi Amaya, Ran's cousin. Taku, I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner! I've known her since childhood, how could I completely miss it for days?!"

"But you figured it out now."

"Well, not exactly . . . She told me and everything clicked into place. Anyway," he added before anyone could say anything, "What do we do now?"

"Well, she's now in the same situation as you," Agasa said, "so can't you tell her that you're Shinichi?"

Conan shook his head. "I don't know," he replied.

"Well, why not?"

"I don't know. I guess it's just that I still feel as if I'll be putting her in more danger than she already is."

"Hm . . ."

After Conan got back from Professor Agasa's house, he was surprised when Eri-san announced that they would be going to Tropical Land tomorrow.

"Doshite?" both Conan and Mouri asked.

Eri glanced witheringly at the two detectives. "Why do you think?" she asked them, "Ran and Conan are back safe and sound."

"Oh, yeah," Detective Mouri replied. "I knew that."

And so, the next day they went to Tropical Land. Conan didn't care that Ran's parents always suggested that he went on the small rides or that Mouri completely disappeared somewhere (probably to find some place where he could drink), he was just glad that he could spend the day with Amaya, whom he now knew was Ran.

"Ne, Conan-kun," Amaya asked, bringing Conan out of his thoughts. "Do you want to go on that ride?" she pointed up at a kiddy ride. It wasn't much, just some oval-shaped objects (you would probably ride in those) that spun somewhat slowly around in a circle. About half-way through, the ovals went higher up off the ground. Conan looked at the sign for it. It read: Tori no Tamago. _Really?_ Conan asked, _Why would I want to go on a ride with the name of Bird's Egg? Especially when the ride lives up to its name._

"No thanks," he replied.

"Oh, come on. Are you scared?"

"Baka!" Conan replied, "Why would I be scared of that?" A bit startled at his response, Amaya stepped back a bit. _Oops_, Conan thought when he realized what he had said, _I forgot that she doesn't know who I am_. "Gomen-nasai, Ran-neechan," Conan said, "I forgot who you were for a second."

Amaya blinked. How could he forget who she was? Then she looked down and remembered that she still looked like a little kid. And it was only yesterday that he found out that Amaya was actually Ran, after all. She could understand how he could make that mistake.

"It's okay," she replied. However, she was still wondering why Conan didn't want to go on this ride. It looked like it would be fun for little kids. "Well then, let's go eat lunch, I'm hungry."

"Okay!" Conan agreed.

After eating, Amaya suggested to buy some candy for the two of them. Once again, Conan replied by saying, "No thanks." Amaya looked strangely at him, but this time didn't say anything.

The rest of the day passed as any normal day would and, thankfully, Conan didn't mess up by thinking that Amaya knew who he was or thinking that they were both back to normal. When the family and Conan got back to the Mouri Detective Agency, they all immediately went to bed. Going to an amusement park for an entire day can be tiring.

In the morning, Conan was up before anybody else. He was still tired, but he couldn't go to sleep, so he decided just to go into the kitchen and make himself some coffee to wake himself up. It wasn't like he was actually a kid, after all. He just hoped that nobody would come in and see him drinking the coffee.

Unfortunately, someone did.

"Wow, Conan-kun, you're up early," Amaya said.

"Well, I couldn't really go to sleep," Conan replied. "So I decided that I would at least fully wake myself up."

"Yeah, I guess hot chocolate would help with that," Amaya replied, noting the drink on the table. Conan raised his eyebrows, but was thankful that she somehow didn't notice the telltale smell of coffee in the air.

"Wait, that doesn't smell like hot chocolate," Amaya said. Oops, spoke too soon. "Conan-kun, are you drinking coffee?" she asked.

"Heh heh," Conan replied not sure how to reply. "This is coffee?" he managed. She narrowed her eyes at him. Not good.

"Anyway," she replied, "you shouldn't be drinking this." And she took the mug away from him.

"H-hey!" Conan exclaimed, reaching out after she took it.

"I'll make you some tea instead."

"Haaaaaaaaiii," Conan sighed.

After breakfast, Eri-san left to go help a client who had called and Detective Mouri left to go play Mahjong with some of his friends. Amaya went to cleaning up the house and Conan once again started to read a book.

Around noon, Amaya sighed and asked, "Shinichi, what do you want for lunch?"

"I don't know," he replied, "Anything is fine."

Suddenly, Conan felt a presence in front of him. He looked up from his book and saw that Amaya was a few inches from his face, staring intently at him. Conan opened his mouth to ask "what?", but stopped when he realized what he had just replied to. Oops.

* * *

_Sorry for those who were hoping that Conan would tell. Hey, even he doesn't know why he didn't tell her. Anyway, I hope that the ending made up for that. Conan, you're in trooooouuuuuble. _


End file.
